Church dogmatics follow the leader.

My last blog on church dogmatics answered the question, “What is church dogmatics?” In this entry I’ll further seek to answer what church dogmatics is by listing a few of its characteristics? Our young daughter describes our dog by its characteristics. We might “get” church dogmatics better by seeing its characteristics.


The list below is taken from Bavink’s, Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena. Prolegomena is a pretty big word, huh? Runners have a pep talk from their couch before a race. They tell the runner how to pace himself, what the goal is, how he will win, etc. The couch gives him a prolegomena. A prolegomena is a sort of pep talk. In church dogmatics there is always a pep talk before you get into the heavy stuff. This pep talk tells the reader how we can know God, what our goals are in knowing him, and where we find the knowledge of God.

Enough said of prolegomena, what are the characteristics of church dogmatics?

1. The Bible is the foundation, because the church is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, whom the apostles and prophets proclaim. The NT church showed that all Jesus did, taught and accomplished was in accordance to the OT Scripture. Then the Spirit inspired the apostles to write the NT which became the tradition of the church. These Scriptures were and still are the foundation of all church theology, because they take us to the foundation of the church, Jesus Christ.

2. Church dogmatics act as go-between to faith and its true object: God in his living self revelation in Jesus Christ. The church doesn’t do dogmatics; at least it shouldn’t, so people can believe in dogmatics. It does dogmatics so people can believe in Jesus Christ. It serves preaching.

3. Church dogmatics does not have its own authority for its own sake. Its authority rests completely on the authority of God and can appeal to a “Yes, God hath said.”

4. Meteorologists describe the weather, church dogmatics describe the deeds of God “done for, to, and in human beings.” (Pg, 58).

5. Dogmatics serve ethics too. Why, because part of dogmatics is describing how the gospel changes human beings. The Bible describes what human beings are and do for God now; how with everything the are and have, with intellect and will and all their strength, they devote themselves to God out of gratitude and love. Dogmatics is the system of the knowledge of God; ethics is that of the service of God. The two disciplines far from facing each other as two independent entities, together form a single system.” (Pg, 58).

6. Church dogmatics seeks to think God’s thoughts after him. It tries to live out the childhood game “follow the leader,” in connection with God’s thinking about creation, salvation, and sanctification.  It then attempts to describe God’s way and life, and proclaim it to the church.  From this attempt and work comes church confessions and creeds.  More on that next time.

Church dogmatics lay out God’s treasures.

Dr. Suess once wrote, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go.” How about relating this to church dogmatics? We could say, “The more church dogmatics you understand, the more you will know and love God. The more you know and love God, the more God will spread his glory through you.” Of course understanding church dogmatics in a way that leads you knowing and loving God is a work of God’s Spirit in us; and praise God he does this work. Also, praise God there is such a thing as church dogmatics!


Let’s begin by asking what are church dogmatics? Nope, this is not a new question. From Origen (185-254 a.d.) to today millions of paragraphs have been written to answer this question. Oh, by the way, the answers have been excellent and very helpful. Thank the Lord for the wonderful teachers he has given to the church. Of course people like Immanuel Kant, Adolph Harnack, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Rudolph Bultmann, and other German guys said we couldn’t really answer this question. Why did these people say no? Simply, because they did not believe Scripture set forth the true knowledge of God. They said Christian truth is a human invention, an act of the human will, a human experience, not truth given by God himself to reveal the truth about himself. This brings me to again, in hopefully understandable terms define what dogmatics is.

When you read a book on church dogmatics you are reading a book which has put what the Bible says about God, sin, salvation, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and other Christian topics, in an orderly way. The Bible has information about these subjects throughout its pages. Dogmatics studies the passages and puts the information together in an orderly way, and then declares… “God’s Word teaches that…”

One of the best books on church dogmatics is Herman Bavink’s, Reformed Dogmatics. A new edition of this great work was put out in 2003 by Baker Books. Bavink said, “Dogmatics is the laying out of the treasures of Sacred Scripture, a commitment to the standard of teaching [for the church, the Holy Bible], so that in it [dogmatics] we possess a form and image of the heavenly doctrine.” Herman Bavink, Reformed Dogmatics vol.1. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic), 55.

We will explore the features and task of dogmatics next time.